Middle East Monitor / January 22, 2021
Jewish settlers threw petrol bombs at two Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank village of Burin, near Nablus, on Thursday evening, Wafa has reported. When local residents rushed to try to extinguish the resultant fire, Israeli occupation forces fired rubber-coated metal bullets and tear gas at them.
The soldiers then entered the village and opened fire on the villagers. Many suffered from tear gas inhalation, and one resident in his 30s was arrested.
The attack came shortly after groups of extremist settlers sealed off several roads and junctions and attacked Palestinian vehicles with stones and empty bottles. Eyewitnesses said that the Jewish settlers who hurled the petrol bombs were identifiable but were not detained by the security forces.
Attacks by Jewish settlers on Palestinian property are commonplace, particularly by extreme right-wing settlers. They are rarely held to account by the Israeli occupation authorities. Indeed, in most cases the settlers who harass and attack Palestinians are accompanied and protected by Israeli soldiers.
More than 600,000 Jewish settlers currently live in more than 250 illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. According to international law, the West Bank and East Jerusalem are “occupied Palestinian territories” and all Jewish settlements built there and the settlers who live in them are illegal.
